Why We Should Textbooks Be Free

Specific Purpose Statement: To persuade my audience to take a stand and change how expensive purchasing textbooks are at Colorado State University.

Attention-getter: How much money have you spent just this year alone on college? Hold on now, did you include all the fees? Living expenses? Your meal plan? Obvioulsy the answer is going to be in the upwards of thousands of dollars. Depressing, I know! College should be a time where you are truly discovering who you are and what you want to do with your life. It shouldn’t be about how you’re slowly but surely giving your life away to student loans. Oh yes, student loans, the mortal enemy of any college student. The college tuition alone is already high enough to put you in debt with student loans for a majority of your life. There are many things that factor into the price of a college education, some reasonable, others however, are a different story. Today, I want to talk to you about the scam that is going on concerning the price of college textbooks. An interesting statistic by The Huffington Post tells us that the cost of college textbooks has increased 253% faster than the cost of college tuition over the decade. How come college textbooks are so expensive? And what can we do to stop this? Well let’s get into it shall we.

Preview main points (Topics in the speech body): The amount of money students pay for textbooks is steadily increasing and most of us don’t even use those textbooks.

Publishers have been able to drive up textbook prices because students 'have to buy whatever textbook they've been assigned,' says Nicole Allen, a program director for the Scholarly Publishing Academic Resources Coalition"(U.S. News). If the professors have the option to choose whatever book they want to teach out of, they could go to the discount bookstore and see what editions of books that they have and just assign students one of the books out of there. It would make it so much easier on the teachers and the students. The instructors would not have to deal with having to teach out of a

In response to Mr. Caldwell’s essay, I agree that the cost of college education is exorbitant. First, the cost of books alone can be several hundred dollars not including additional codes and materials to access online materials. There are several hidden fees such as parking, student IDs and other various miscellaneous items. Secondly, it seems as though some instructors have little interest in teaching. Instead they have canned responses and make little effort to interact. Rather than feeling as though you are participating

The only things that students often have to pay for are their books. I believe that this is a good example to have available to for our future

Traci was sad that she was going to lose points and sad that she was unable to buy a textbook. She is a hardworking student. She wants to do well in school and get A’s in all subjects. In order for that to happen, in Tyler Junior College, the Library should have a minimum of 5 copies of each reserve textbook that should be available to students like Traci to use, because textbooks are expensive to buy or to rent. There is a long wait to get a book, and at present, there are not enough reserve text books available.

The number one stress causer of most students is the cost of books. Books can range anywhere from sixty dollars up to around three hundred. In a survey it is shown that students pay up to $1,200 a year just on books! On books. Nothing more. Many teachers pick their books, not the school. Why do the teachers pick some of the most expensive when there are other books with the same information that cost almost half the price? Due to this, many resort to renting books but on some websites it cost just as much as the new price. Though financial aid is an option to help with this overpriced ordeal, it doesn’t always cover

For decades, the options of renting apartments, cars, and movies. Renting allows the person in mind to enjoy goods while they need them and return them when they are no longer useful. However, can renting textbooks actually be worth it for students?

“Marketing Professors’ Perspectives on the Cost of College Textbooks: A Pilot Study” is a paper by Lawrence S. Silver, Robert E. Stevens of Southeastern Oklahoma State University and Kenneth E. Clow of University of Louisiana. It was published in the Journal of Education for Business Volume 87. The first half of the paper starts off by explaining why the cost of textbooks is an issue. They go on to explain different competitors’ textbook have in the marketplace today and how publishers are trying to appeal new customers through professors. The second half of the paper focuses on a study that was done by surveying random marketing professors in the United States. The survey contained questions asking about the pricing of textbooks and how they

Ethan Senack, a higher education associate at U.S. PIRG (Public Interest Research Group), wrote in his article titled, “Fixing The Broken Textbook Market: How Students Respond To High Textbook Cost And Demand Alternatives.” Whereas, he suggest that the problems associated with high pricing on textbooks, has nothing to do with the student. However, he feels that the students would be the most effective in seeking lower prices for textbooks. He gave several examples of colleges that are overcoming this barrier. One successful example he used was Maryland Open-Source Textbook (MOST). The university staff, professors and students worked together to generate ideas to reduce the cost of textbooks, using the use of open textbooks (16).

One of the main reasons why college textbooks are so expensive is because they are overpriced. The publishers set the prices. The bookstore has no control. The publishers of the textbooks are in the habit of bringing new editions quite frequently. Most students hesitate to buy old editions fearing that they will miss out on

`One reason college textbooks should be free is because how expensive they are. The price of a college textbook can start at a hundred dollars. Most students are required to have a few textbooks each semester. So the prices of each textbook will add up and may cost over a few hundred

Students would donate textbooks to the book exchange, and in exchange earn points to purchase textbooks from the book exchange. The exchange could be held in the student center twice a term, and the books will be stored in a self-contained storage cabinet that is housed on campus. The exchange would be run by the student council and student volunteers who earn book exchange points for each hour they volunteer. The initial cost of the storage unit and initial books could be earned through various fundraisers and book

For change to happen in the college textbooks market, the change must be a lot deeper than the distributor level. Whether you buy a required textbook at the campus bookstore, Textbook Brokers down the street, or online at Amazon, you are still forced to support a multi-billion dollar industry racket that holds your grades and education hostage for a profit.